The third crusade was launched in 1189 due to the catastrophic defeat of Crusader forces at the Battle of the Hattin, in 1187, and the subsequent loss of Jerusalem. The news of this significant setback was, according to the chronicler Ernoul, so great that, Pope Urban died of grief when he heard the news. As a result, the newly elected Pope issued a Papal bull called the “Audita Tremendi” and in turn the three most powerful Christian kings in Europe took up the cause. The religious zeal created by the propaganda of the church even managed Henry II of England and Philip II of France to lay aside their differences and travel to the Holy Land. However, Henry II died and was succeeded by his son Richard the Lionheart. It was his decision to renege on a promise to Philip II that he would marry his daughter Alice would foster mistrust into their relationship and would, more significantly, undermine the Third Crusade due to the lack of Christian unity. The crusade also as a whole was undermined by the lack of efficiency and clearness of thought, this is most evidently seen by the way that it would take all three major leaders a year to leave for the Levant, with Richard being the only one with legitimate reasons for the delay as he had just ascended to the throne and needed to sort England out before he left. The Third Crusade would ultimately turn out to be failure; insofar that Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands. However, there were many successes such as King Richard managed to remain undefeated and there was a genuine amount of fear among the Muslim forces, plunged into disarray by the death of Saladin shortly after the Treaty of Ramla, that he would return after the three-year truce to continue the crusade. Even Saladin himself was said to be wary of this, with his biographer recounting that he said, “'I fear to make peace, not knowing what may become of me. Our enemy will grow strong, now that they have retained these lands.” Unarmed Christian pilgrims were also allowed the right to enter the holy city of Jerusalem as part of the truce.

Perhaps the most important reason for the failure of the Third Crusade was the increasingly deteriorating relations between Philip and Richard. This was not helped by the year of severe mistrust between the Kings of France and the rulers of England since William the Conqueror took the throne in 1066. Despite them both being more than willing to crusade in the East, both waited for the other to make their move believing that the other would invade their country while they were on pilgrimage. The delays caused by the inefficiency of the Crusades were only exacerbated by the messengers sent by Philip to Richard who had seen fit to take Cyprus, an idea that Madden argues was sensible as it would be “difficult to imagine how the crusaders could have continued their war against Saladin without their base in Cyprus.” Philip argued that Richard “was concentrating his efforts on useless exercises” and boldly claimed, “when it came to engaging the Saracens, he turned out to be a coward.”

The failure of the Kings of France and England to work together for the greater cause also interfered in local tensions, such as the dispute over the throne of Jerusalem, and even made them worse. The two main contenders for the throne were both linked to their respective Kings in terms of their feudal relations in Europe. Richard championed Guy of Lusignan, the current King of Jerusalem, because, “Guy’s family, the Lusignans, were feudatories...of Richard’s county of Poitou.” On the other hand, Conrad was related to and thus supported by Philip of France, as they were cousins. At the same time as this growing argument, the two kings locked horns over the situation of Acre. It was Philip who wished to attack the city with haste, while inevitably and rather unfortunately, Richard was of the other mind and wished to delay the attack. This now...

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...﻿To what extend did the European leaders recapture the holy land from Saladin in the thirdcrusade?
Forty years after the failure of the Second Crusade, Richard I of England, Philip II of France and Barbarossa leader of Germany all ended their conflicts to assist the ThirdCrusade (1189-1192). Saladin, who captured Jerusalem in 1187, had unified Syria and Egypt in the past, making him a very powerful adversary and an excellent military leader. Losing the Holy Land was too shameful for Christendom, so with the Pope's blessing, dozens of thousands of men marched toward Jerusalem under the three great kings.
Saladin preferred to defend the city without bloodshed and offered generous terms, but the citizens inside refused to leave their holy city, vowing to destroy it in a fight to the death rather than see it handed over peacefully. Thus the siege began.
Three reasons are primarily given for the beginning of the Crusades: to free Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; to aid the suffering Christians of the East, thereby healing the rift between Roman and Orthodox Christianity following the Schism of 1054; and to marshal the energy of the constantly warring feudal lords and knights into the one cause of "penitential warfare." 1
Barbarossa responded instantly to the Crusade and recruited 15,000 men. His army was so huge that he couldn't cross through the...

...The Crusades were a series of Holy Wars launched by the Christian states of Europe against the Saracens and the rescuing of holy places of Palestine from the hands of the Mohammedans. (Alchin 1) There were eight Crusades in number; the first four were sometimes called the Principal Crusades, and the remaining four were the called the Minor Crusades. (Alchin 1) The Principal Crusades, however, were considered to be the most important. (Alchin 1) The Principal Crusades started because of key people or key events, which led to affect history.
Every crusade contained key people, which helped spark the crusades, or contained key leaders that were important in conquering them. The first impulse to the Crusade came from an appeal of the eastern emperor, Michael VII to Pope Gregory VII for aid against the Seljuks. (Walker 2) Alexius I, a stronger ruler tan him immediate predecessors in Constantinople, saw the divisive squabbles among the Seljuk chieftain as an opportunity to take the offensive. (Walker 2) He, therefore, appealed to Pope Urban II for assistance in raising a body of western knights to help him recover his lost Asiatic provinces. (Walker 2) Urban called on all Christendom to take part in the work, promising a complete remission of sins to those who would take the arduous journey. (Walker 2) The leaders of the first...

..."The Crusades: series of wars by Western European Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims." (Encarta "Crusades") The Crusades first began in 1096 and ended in the late 13th century. The term Crusade originally meant that the European's would use all their efforts to regain the power from the Muslims. They wanted to retake the city of Jerusalem, which was holy to Christians because that's where the crucifixion of Jesus Christ occurred. Europeans later used it to allocate any military efforts against non-Christians. The Crusaders also created feudal states in the Near East. The Crusades played an important role of European expansion and colonialism. "They mark the first time Western Christendom undertook a military initiative far from home, the first time significant numbers left to carry their culture and religion abroad." (Encarta "Crusades") In addition to the efforts in the East, the Crusading movement includes other wars against Muslims, pagans, and dissident Christians and the general expansion of Christian Europe. "Originally the object of the crusade was to help the Christian Churches in the East."(Mayer, 9) " Also on the agenda was the peace of God, i.e. the prohibition of feuding on certain days and the immunity of certain people, places, and things."(Mayer, 8). Basically the Crusades were an expression of militant Christianity and...

...﻿How and why did the Second and ThirdCrusades fail to match the enthusiasm and success of the First?
When Pope Urban II received a petition from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius for military aid to repel the threat of Islam, particularly the Muslim Turks, he saw an opportunity to repair the Great Schism of forty years and unite the church under papal primacy.1 Europe at this time was not only fervently Christian, but its knights, although they regarded bloodshed as inherently sinful, consistently delved into violence and killing.2 It is therefore clear to see, when Pope Urban insisted that fighting in what would be known as the First Crusade would be a penitential act at the Council of Clermont in 1095, why there was so much enthusiasm and widespread support. Alexius probably expected no more than a token force, but the extent of support rendered the Byzantine Empire to be ‘overrun by Humankind’ according to Asbridge.3 The First Crusade was an undoubted success; creating four Crusader States in Outremer against the odds. However roughly one hundred years later a unified Muslim force under Saladin took Jerusalem and the following two crusades were comparatively utter failures. It is thus important to analyse and compare the both the continually fluctuating levels of Muslim unity and the changing mentality of the Franks to determine why and how the First Crusade achieved so much more than the...

...The Three Crusades
There were three Crusades and they all took different
routes from western Europe to Palestine.
THE FIRST CRUSADE - The first crusade began in A.D. 1095.
Pope Urban II mounted a platform outside the church at
Clermont, France. The crowd shouted "Deus vult!" in response to
the pope's plea. Knights and peasants alike vowed to join the
expedition to the Holy Land. For knights, the Crusade was a
welcome chance to employ their fighting skills. For peasants,
the Crusade meant freedom from feudal bonds while on the
Crusade. All were promised immediate salvation in heaven if
they were killed freeing the Holy Land from non-Christians.
Adventure and the possibility of wealth were other reasons to
join the Crusade. The First Crusade heightened already existing
hatred of non-Christians and marked the onset of a long period of
Christian persecution of the Jews. During the First Crusade,
which began in A.D. 1096, three armies of Crusader knights and
volunteers traveled separately from western Europe to the
eastern Mediterranean. On the way, many of them killed Jews
and sometimes massacred entire Jewish communities. The
three armies finally met in Constantinople in A.D. 1097. From
there the Crusaders made their way to Jerusalem, enduring the
hardships of desert travel as well as quarrels...

...Richard the Lionheart and Saladin
Richard the Lionheart and Saladin are known as some of the greatest leaders and warriors to fight in The Crusades. The book Warriors of God, by James Reston describes these two men throughout their battles in the ThirdCrusade. Many portrayals of these two men are either ones that make them look like the kindest of any of the Crusaders or some of the meanest, most gruesome men to fight. James Reston does a very good job of finding a medium between the two and gives the reader a good understanding of what these two great leaders were like without being biased.
Richard the Lionheart was portrayed by Reston as one of the greatest Crusaders of all. After reading this book, the reader would not be able to help holding him in higher regards than anyone else that he or she would hear about. The author depicts Richard as a great leader and commander throughout the book. He continually shows examples of Richard's leadership and ability to control and motivate his army. Time after time he gets his men to fight for him. Most men would eventually get sick of this. Having been away from their families and loved ones for so long, they would have stop putting in effort and waited to go home. Granted each soldier was promised that he would automatically go to the Holy Land upon death after fighting in the Holy War, but it was still very impressive the way that his men stuck by him throughout the...

... harassed Muslim trading and pilgrimage routes with a fleet on the Red Sea, a water route that Saladin needed to keep open. Raynald threatened to attack the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. In retaliation, Saladin besieged Kerak, Raynald's fortress in Oultrejordain, in 1183 and 1184. Raynald responded by looting a caravan of pilgrims on the Hajj in 1185.
In July of 1187, Saladin captured the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On July 4, 1187, he faced at the Battle of Hattin the combined forces Guy of Lusignan, King consort of Jerusalem, and Raymond III of Tripoli. In the battle alone the Crusader army was largely annihilated by the motivated army of Saladin in what was a major disaster for the Crusaders and a turning point in the history of the Crusades. Saladin captured Raynald de Chatillon and was personally responsible for his execution. (According to the chronicle of Ernoul, Raynald had captured Saladin's so-called sister in a raid on a caravan, although this is not attested to in Muslim Sources. According to Muslim Sources, Saladin never had a sister, but only mentioned the term when referring to a fellow Muslim who was female.) Guy of Lusignan was also captured but his life was spared. Two days after the Battle of Hattin, Saladin ordered the execution of all prisoners of the military orders by beheading. The executions took place as Saladin's secretary himself, Imad ad-Din, from the Ibid, page 138, describes: "He (Saladin) ordered that they should be beheaded,...

...Jason Arnold
The Crusades
Liberty University
CHHI301
The Crusades
The Crusades are a big part of history, not just for the church, but for the world. This point in time showed the weakened state of the Romans and the power of the church over its people. There are good and bad things that came out of the Crusades; the heart of the people and the corruption of man. But where does the story start?
The call to fight started in November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clermont under Pope Urban II. Urban address the Council and sent his priests out to give sermons to motivate the people. This was in response to the Eastern Emperor Alexios’ request for help. Urban’s call was heard throughout the land that any man who went and fought to liberate the Holy Land would be forgiven of all their past sins, and those who could not fight gave money to the campaign would receive the same kind of forgiveness.[1]
The words “whoever wishes to save his soul should not hesitate humbly to take up the way of the Lord, and if he lack sufficient money, divine mercy will give him enough” and “brethren, we ought to endure much suffering for the name of Christ-misery, poverty, nakedness, persecution, want, illness, hunger, thirst, and ills of this kind, just as the Lord saith to his disciples ‘You must suffer My name’” were given by the priests to encourage people to support the effort.[2] The call to march and help out the eastern...